Tag Archives: Aurungzeb

MORE than two centuries before Aurungzeb’s death and even before the coming of Babur, a new kind of invader had appeared in India. Instead of thundering down on horseback from the Himalayan passes, he arrived on the coast by ship. Instead of plunder, he sought trade. Instead of wanting to conquer the subcontinent, he wanted to conquer the seas around it. This invader’s name was Vasco da Gama. He had sailed his small fleet all the way around Africa from his homeland of Portugal in southwest Europe. In 1498, just six years after Columbus discovered America, he landed at the South Indian port of Calicut. “Why have you come?” someone asked him. “For Christians and spices,” he replied. The captain’s brief answer summed up a great deal of history. Throughout the Middle Ages, Europe had depended on the East for Silk, precious stones and spices‚ such as cloves and — most prized of all — pepper. Supplies had come from India across Moslem territory. Deliveries had always been uncertain, but after the Turks took Constantinople in 1453, they became even more so. The Turks held up shipments and demanded money to let them pass. If this toll was paid, the price of the goods had to be raised. If it was not paid, the Turks would not allow the shipment to go through. Eastern goods became scarce in Europe and this sent the price still higher. It soon became plain that anyone who could bring the products of Asia directly to Europe would make a fortune. The Portuguese, as the foremost seafarers of Europe, were the first people to try to get around the Turkish blockade by setting up a sea route to India. There were other reasons, too, behind da Gama’s voyage. The pope and the European kings feared …

WHEN Akbar died, the hope of a peaceful, prosperous India died with him. None of his successors was nearly so wise, open-minded, and farsighted. Even so, the Mogul Empire kept growing. The seventeenth century was, indeed, the height of Mogul power. Akbar’s son Jahangir reigned from 1605 to 1627. His name, which meant “grasper of the world,” did not fit him at all well, for he added only a little territory to the empire. Although he was clever and well-educated, Jahangir was also lazy and pleasure-loving. He was content to leave affairs of state to his Persian wife and her relatives. As he admitted in his memoirs, he “only wanted a bottle of wine and a piece of meat to make merry.” On Jahangir’s death, his two sons began to fight over which should succeed him. Before the question was settled, the winner had killed his brother and all but one of his other male relatives. In 1628, he was crowned as Shah Jahan. Three years later, his beautiful empress Mumtaz Mahal the name meant “jewel of the palace” died in childbirth. The grief-stricken emperor commanded the best architects in the land to create a monument worthy of his dead wife. Twenty thousand men worked on the project for fifteen years. The result was the world-famous white marble tomb known as the Taj Mahal, which many people consider the loveliest structure ever raised anywhere. The cost of building the Taj Mahal was enormous. Shah Jahan could afford it, for his treasury contained the equivalent of a billion dollars, an unheard-of sum for those days. His subjects did not benefit from his wealth. Instead of prospering, as they had under Akbar, they suffered terrible hardships. Under Akbar, the state had collected land taxes, but Shah Jahan let his governors collect taxes …